Improvement in apparatus for teaching music



dinard iatet @than @with lines on the other.

LOUIS SEWARD, (iF-NEW .ORLEANS, LOUISIANA.

.Letters Patent No. 96,151, (lated Octobe 26, 1869.

IMPROVEMENT IN' APPARATUS FOR TEACHING M IUSICl 8Lc.

The Schedule referred to in these Letters Patent and making part of thesame.

To all whom. it may concern Be it known that I, LOUIS A. SEWARD, of thecounty of Somerset, England-butnow residing in the city of NewiOrleans,State ot' Louisiana, have invented a certain new, useful, and improvedMode ot' Imparting Musical Instruction hy means of an upright keyboardand sounding-stads that are connected thereto and Ido hereby declare thefollowing to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same,reference being had to the annexed drawing, making a part of thisspecification.

The utter impossibility of imparting musical instruction on thepiano-forte, and other instruments oi' like character, in consequence ofthe horizontalA position of the key-board, under the present form orplan of construction, is a fact well known to all teachers andmusicians. It is also familiar knowledge to them that there 'is noexisting arrangement which affords a means for 'communicating to theminds of pupils a clear and definite idea of `the precise relationsbetween the sounds of the keys and the written notes, and still less,between these sounds' and the diiferent lines of the staff. Theimportance o t' my invention'will, there fore, become at once apparent,when I state that it supplies a mechanical arrangement or means t'orteaching, at one and the Sametime, a. hundred or more persons, whilstalso indicating, with the greatest possible precision, the exactrelations to which I have adverted, betweeuthe keys and the writtennotes, on the one hand, and between the keys and the statil My inventionpresents, moreover, a means by which children can he taught therudiments of music under the operation of the controlling power andinliuence ot' their love of amusement, for it can readily be put intothe form ot' a toy, winch, calling forth and exercising their ingenuityin the construction ot'a musical stati', and the placing thereon thediii'e-rent notes and rests, in their proper posit-ions and relations toeach other, will give, under the direction ofa teacher, a perfectknowledge of the rudiments of music, almost withouta consciousness ofthe fact ontheir parts.

But the advantages of my invention are not contiued to small children.It can be used with very great etl'ect in teaching classes of adults,without regard to the number ot' pupilsA composing, or who are embracedin the class, because it presents, 'in visible and audible form, andinvery expanded dimensions, if necessary, all things that are requisiteto be learned before the nature and structure of the science of musiccan be thoroughly understood, or correctly applied in instrumentalpractice. One teacher may, therefore, whenv aided by my invention, givethe same measure or quantum of instruction to any givennumber of pupils,which, under present modes of teaching, and

Vpresent modes of constructing pianos, would require as many, or nearlyas many teachers to impart as there are pupils in the class.

Nor is it necessary that my invention should always be connected with,and att-ached to an instrument. In its toy-form it will rarely ever beso connected and attached, a dumb representation of the present keyboardbeing all that is necessary in that form of it, and even that is notalways necessary to make it fulfil the object otimparting a correctknowledge of the fundamental principles ofthe science of music. In itsseparate or detached forni, whether designed for the instruction ot'classes of young children or not, it may be made large enough to extendacross the roomv in which the class is taught, whilst yet of sectionalconstruction, and hence, easily portable, because readily taken apart.

` My invention consists of the'combinatiou of severalnovel anddistinct-ive mechanical parts or features,but which are yet allembraced` within the two principal features of an upright key-board anda fratrie-work,

on which are sustained one or more sounding-stads,`

that, alike in their separat-e and associated characteristics, will bebetter understood by a reference to the drawing, than from the mostextended and carefullydrawn written description merely.

The Itirst novel feature of my invention is a supplemental key-board,exactly corresponding in the number ot its keys, and the size thereof,with the horizontal key-board with which it is combined, substantiallyas shown on the drawing. lhatis to say, the white keys oi' the uprightsupplemental hoard, the saine being marked A on the drawing, are soplaced that they rest near their outer extremities on the outer ends ofthe corresponding white keys ofthe horizontal board B, at suoli aninclination that a depressionot' any one ot' the former will cause adepression oi' the key ofthe horizontal hoard on which it rests, andthus sound the note to which the latter gives expression in theinstrument. This arrangement necessitates a different kind of connectionbetween the black keys of the two boards, and hence, I'establish thesameby links or rods, a, as clearly shown through the broken portion ofthe'upright board on the drawing, on the left-hand halt` of the same,and by dotted lines on the right-hand Across this frame, vef horizontalwooden bars, D E F G H, are secured, as shown, to represent the fivelines which, in music, constitute a stati. In the practice of myinvention, any number of staffs may be thus represented, and in everycase 'there should be atleast two.

Each of these wooden hars should be provided with a sufficient-number ofmovable keys, s'o placed as that they may he actuated by a touch or blowon the thin elastic front strips d s fg h, to connect, by means ofproper links and traeke1s, with the keys of the instrument whichrepresent the sounds that especially relate and belong to the linesofthe stati" of which they, the said wooden bars, are severally therepresentatives. This arrangement constitutes what I call mysounding-stad, for it is through its agency that an instructor mayat-once indicate the appropriate sounds to his pupils, that areespecially related to each staffline in music, by simply touching thestrips d e fg h, and thus causing the emission of the said severalsounds. This arrangement of the keys in the wooden bars, with mechanicalconnections with the keys of the piano, I have not considered itnecessary to show on the drawing, because it is of sol simple a naturethat it is readily comprehended without -the aid of `illustration by adrawing.

When the invention isused independently of an instrument, it will, ofcourse, be understood that the above arrangement is wholly dispensedwith, for the object for which it is designed, to wit,'the exactrelations between the lsounds'emitted by the keys, and the lines andnotes in a stati', cannot beindicated without'an instrument.

A similar arrangement for indicating the sounds that belongto theintermediate spaces between the lines ofthe stati', and the relationsofthe same to the keys ofthe instrument, may be made through the agencyof'a rear board, J, and frontelastic strips like IK, combined withproper keys, and links, and trackers, to

'canse said stripsto actuate the keys of thefinst-rument.V

But there is yet another way in which my invention assists the teacherto an extraordinary degree,

and'enables him to manage large classes with thetangible a 'manner thatthe dullest intellect will at once comprehend the method, and hence, beinstructed in'the primary principles on which ail music is based, andthe way in which they are practically applied. For it will be seen thateach of these wooden bars is or must be provided, as well as the elasticstrips in front of it, with some mechanical appliance for attachingAmetallic representations oi' notes, rests, &c., which, in large numbels, are to he kept on hand, in proper boxes or other receptacles, in suchmanner that said notes, Snc., may readily be removed and put on againwhenever necessary.

These attaching-appliances may consist ot' short staples, as shown at J,or of a wire that extends along the whole length ofthe barsfas shown ati, or of any equivalent device whatsoever, as well as of grooves in thebars, by which the notes, Snc., may be put on by a direct insertion ofthem, as shown at k, or indirectly by a hook-like iiexure of the note,as shown at d.

If, now, we suppose my invention, thus provided, to be connected with aninstrument, and placed in view of a class of any number of pupils, itwill be understood at once that the teacher may, either in his ownproper person, or by'calling on on'e of the pupils, by simply strikingon any given key, and then placing or causing to be placed the notewhich represents the Asound given out by that key, instantly communicateand fix in the mind of every pupil a precise knowledge of music to thatextent; and so on, until every key of the board has developed its ownappropriate sound, and been marked on the stati', and there has beenfixed in the mind of every pupil a clear and deniteknowledge of thesame. It will, moreover, be plain that ing lilies of a musicalstaii',.the teacher may .with

facility and rapidity impart, or the pupil, by his own efforts, mayacquire a complete knowledge of the rei lations between the-keys or thesounds they create,

4and the said lines of .the staff, and the notes which pertain to themrespectively.

Thus it will be seen that my invention, inasmuch as it brings thekey-board iu eii'ect before the eyes ot every pupil in a class, ho'wevrgreat their number, 'and shows in palpable form the relation of everyone of the keys thereupon to every note and other musical symbol, aswell' as to each line of the stati' on which the same are written,'completely accomplishes every object designed by me, andV paves the wayfor so cheapening musical instruction'that there is none so p'oor as notto be able to receive it.

My invention is applicable toevery instrument in which obtain key-boardsat all similar to those of pianofortes.

Having thusdescribed my invention,

NVhat I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The combination of an upright supplemental keyboard, with theordinary horizontal y'keyboard of piano-fortes or other likeinstruments, when theformer is used. in connection with verticalstandards, C C, on which are fixed transverse bars I) E FG H, andfrontelastic strips d e f g h, provided with mechanical appliances forattaching removable notes, rests, 85e., and means of connection with thehorizontal keys ot' the instrument, substantially as herein described.

2. The combina-tion of an upright key-board with the bars D E F G H,with or without the front strips Vd e fg h, when these parts areconstructed substanytially as herein described, and applied to thepurposes H. N. JENKINS.

L. A. SEWARD.

